When Kimberly and I were first married, we moved in to a small Duplex unit just north of Lake Charles.  I was still in my final year of college as a music major while she navigated her first teaching job.  I remember many things falling into place, a lot of answered prayers, and nervous excitement with the new chapter in our lives.  One of those answered prayers arrived as some sort of income to bridge the Summer gap before the Fall semester began. After our wedding in May we had a three-month period where we would be paying for our own, well everything.  Prior to teaching checks starting and my small part time pay we really had no clue where our summer money would come from. It was here that we had our first opportunity with professional photography, and it had nothing to do with us being behind the camera.

In our church, there were a number of photographers who had built a solid business in the world of youth baseball action photography.  This group would attend various tournaments, shoot the first round of every team with massive zoom lenses and get 8-10 shots of each player in various spots on the field.  Within the next day they had buckets of small prints lined up so parents could purchase epic photos of their little ones in action shots.  This is where we had the chance to work.  Lined up behind a table for a few hours a day in the peak of summer while hordes of competitive parents poured over photos.  I went home with a heat rash on my back more than once, but we were thrilled for the work and it gave us just enough.

Back then we had no intentions to do anything of merit with photography.  Kimberly had made a casual habit of taking photos of small things, but we were focused on our degrees and working in fields of education.  Throughout the year the photography business allowed me to assist on smaller projects for schools and I absorbed a small piece of what having a business required.  We were close with the owners and during their off season we asked if we could borrow one of their unused cameras so Kimberly could play around; a Nikon D700 with a 24-70 lens.  In a word our first time with a camera was intimidating.  Without a clue as to what made a good photo, we bought a few books from Amazon and tried to comprehend the basics of exposure and pick up the minimal technical skills to actually work the camera.

What followed were lots of photos of rain drops, our Christmas tree, bugs, and ourselves.  I really liked the techy side of the camera and Kimberly loved the freedom to shoot anything and everything trying to come up with fun, interesting shots.  We did it for a few weeks and finally did something more adventurous by taking photos of a family member who was graduating.  It is easy to look back at our ‘work’ from then and say: “Man that was awful.” Truthfully it was not very good at all, but it was enough for us to buy a basic DSLR camera of our own and continue having fun.

After a few of these shoots we even bought some cheap editing software and tried our hand at a number of silly things before really stepping up and buying a student copy of Photoshop.  We were frustrated with that one.  Kimberly even kinda cried at one point when nothing seemed to work. We were untrained, and had never attempted anything close to working with professional software.  Photography as a business? Laughable. I think we quit and watched a Netflix DVD (remember those?) on our old giant, hand-me-down TV.

Then: The Phone Call. I always remember that one.  A family we knew were having a small outdoor ceremony that weekend for a wedding.  They were looking for someone to take photos. Could we do it? Umm…a wedding? Are you serious? Objections popped into our minds like popcorn. This just wasn’t our thing. That was for real photographers.  The family reassured us they didn’t want anything fancy, just to take photos of things as they happened and of course for almost no pay.  We relented, borrowed another camera/lens, and proceeded to track down every example of legit wedding photography we could find, including looking back at our own wedding for examples.

The day was fine, fun even.  What sticks out to me is the drive home, exhausted from hours on our feet, excited that we had pulled it off, and antsy to look through each one of the insane amount of photos we had just taken.  In that tired daze, we felt like we had discovered something we really enjoyed.  There was a challenge and satisfaction to it, all while creating something artful.  More than that it was knowing that we helped make something that would literally last for generations to come.

This May we will celebrate our seventh wedding anniversary.  In those seven years we have lived in three different homes, laughed and argued, sometimes at the same time.  Kimberly quit a full time, stable job to pursue photography, we spent time in fertility treatment before the blessing of our daughter Claire.  We moved back to Texas, I quit my long time job in banking and we had another arrival in our son Daniel.

2017 will be our first year with both of us 100% committed to this business. It is difficult, competitive, daunting, and unpredictable.  It is also immensely rewarding to do what we love. We know that in many ways this is just the start.  It is a large mountain ahead of us as we work towards our goals.  As always we are thankful. Thankful that we are at this point to even attempt this endeavor, thankful for the hundreds of people, families and couples who have let us into their lives and trusted us to be a part of some of their most precious memories.  We certainly hope the best is yet to come.

-Kyle